Project Censored Canada
Project Censored Canada is an initiative established in 1993 to address under-reported news stories and raise awareness about media censorship in Canada. Inspired by its U.S. counterpart, it operates independently and was initially funded by the Goodwin's Foundation. The project involves partnerships with the Canadian Association of Journalists and communication departments at Simon Fraser University and the University of Windsor. Each year, students research numerous under-reported stories from various sources, which are then evaluated by a national panel of journalists, scholars, and public figures. This panel selects a "top ten" list of significant stories that receive broader media attention.
In addition to highlighting specific stories, Project Censored Canada investigates general blind spots in the Canadian news landscape, focusing on influences that shape media coverage. It emphasizes the importance of understanding different forms of censorship, including self-censorship in newsrooms and structural limitations arising from media ownership and commercial pressures. Through its research, publications, and annual reports, the project aims to stimulate public discourse about the nature and implications of censorship in the media.
Project Censored Canada
Founded: 1993
Type of organization: Nonpartisan collaborative scholarly and public interest research body
Significance: This project assesses and publicizes significant blindspots in Canada’s major national news media on an ongoing basis
Important Stories That Failed to Make Big News in Canada
•Tobacco companies and cigarette smuggling
•Media and corporate ties to political power
•Collapse of the cod fisheries and Canadian mismanagement
•Oil company interests behind humanitarian efforts in Somalia
•Canada’s relationship with Indonesia’s repressive regime
•NAFTA’s economic constitution for North America forged in secrecy
•White-collar and corporate crime overlooked by the media
•Canadian arms exports contradict the nation’s image as a peace-keeper
•The need of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited for $300 million in tax money to clean up old nuclear sites
Inspired by Project Censored in the United States—from which it is autonomous—and initially funded by the Goodwin’s Foundation, Project Censored Canada was founded in 1993 by Bill Doskoch, a representative of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ). Since then it has been directed by Robert Hackett, James Winter, and Donald Gutstein, with Richard Gruneau as a consultant. The project was created as a partnership among the CAJ, the communication department at Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University, and (since 1994) the University of Windsor’s department of communications studies. Each year students at both universities research hundreds of stories nominated as under-reported that are published in alternative periodicals, major newspapers’ back pages, books from small presses, and elsewhere. About twenty such stories selected for their intrinsic significance and validity and for their lack of mainstream media coverage are forwarded to a national panel. Made up of journalists, scholars, and public figures, this panel reduces the nominations to a “top ten” list, which always attracts wider media attention.
Since receiving a three-year grant from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in 1994, the project has broadened its research to identify general blindspots in Canada’s news agenda, particularly as they relate to scholarly hypotheses about influences on the media. The project also produces yearbooks and annual “junk food news” lists, and it has surveyed journalists and interest groups about the news agenda.
The project seeks to raise debate about the extent and nature of censorship in Canada’s news system. It broadens traditional notions of censorship as governmental sanctions against publication, to encompass self-censorship within newsrooms, and unwitting structural censorship which may result from concentrated ownership, commercial pressures, or other aspects of media organization.